Bottom line: China’s airlines are likely to permanently ban independent travel agents from selling on Qunar and other third-party platform operators, dealing a serious blow to their air ticketing businesses.
The bad news just keeps coming for travel agent Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR), with word that its online sales platform could soon be banned for sale of tickets from China Southern (HKEx: 1055; Shanghai: 600029), the nation’s largest airline. Media are reporting that China Southern is preparing to roll out a wide-ranging new policy to govern the agents who sell its tickets. A key part of that will ban agents from selling China Southern’s tickets over third-party platforms like the one that Qunar operates.
This particular bad news is significant but also incremental, since China’s major airlines have been slowly freezing out Qunar this year due to complaints from people who buy their tickets over the company’s online platform. That platform allows independent travel agents to sell tickets on Qunar’s site, with a growing number of agents using deceptive or even fraudulent practices to make sales. Read Full Post…
